THE ASSOCIATION FOR HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY IN BRITAIN: AHP(B)
Initially formed over the years 1961-64 in the United States, the Association for Humanistic Psychology has grown into a network of affiliated centres and associations throughout the world. The AHP in Britain began in 1969 and operates with a central committee in London and regional groups in some areas. It is a registered charity, No. 290548.
Website: http://ahpb.org.uk
The aims of the AHP include publishing and spreading the knowledge developed in humanistic psychology, encouraging basic theory and research, supporting the work of its practitioner members, and acting as a contact point for people involved in humanistic psychology.
Activities of the AHP have included lectures, workshops, an alternative disco, an annual celebratory gathering and occasional special events, all of which are open to non-members but can be attended by members at concessionary rates. The Newsletter, circulated six times a year, serves as a channel of communication, and members can receive the Journal "Self & Society" at a reduced rate.
An Annual General Meeting is held early in the year at which the accounts are presented, reports are received, the policies of the Association are reviewed and a new Committee is formed. The Chairperson, Vice-Chair, Treasurer and Honorary Secretary are elected, and others who join the Committee may take on responsibility for events and certain other functions. Additional members may be co-opted.
Currently there is some interest in the formation of networks within the Association for those involved in specific areas such as health, psychotherapy, education, management, social work, the arts, etc. There have been contacts with AHP branches in other countries, and in 1991 some of us went to Russia to confer with the AHP which has been set up there.
Members have said that they value receiving (and being included in) lists of therapy centres, training courses, events, books, etc., as they are published; being kept up to date with new techniques, new ideas and new approaches on a world-wide basis; hearing of other people's personal achievements and successes in applying humanistic psychology in their fields, and getting encouragement in their own struggles and difficulties, being in touch with other members locally and feeling part of a global movement for personal and social change.
Membership of AHP is open to anyone involved or interested in humanistic psychology. It is not restricted to any particular profession or group of professions.
In recent years there has been an opening up of the theory and practice of humanistic psychology. Some people have held to the Maslow/Rogers view that human beings are naturally developing up a kind of escalator, and only have to give in to the process to become self-actualised or fully functioning. Others have tended more towards the May/Mahrer view that existential choice is all there is, and there is no particular progress inherent in the nature of things: in fact, growing up as we do in a culture much of which is quite negative, we are just as likely to move downwards or sideways as onward and ever upward. Others again have moved more towards the Anderson/O'Hara view that reality is constructed by our efforts, rather than being an objective structure out there somewhere: on this understanding, again there is no goal to which we are all tending, but only the goals which we make for ourselves. Still others have been seduced away from humanistic psychology by the New Age idea that we are responsible for whatever happens to us, which in the field of medicine becomes a kind of "wellness macho" and a kind of omnipotence.
Contact address for the AHP(B) is BM Box 3582, London WC1N 3XX, or phone 071 431 7113.
http://ahpb.org.uk
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Association for Humanistic Psychology